I was convinced until I got home Hume had scored that cracking goal, Mowbray is a twat swapping the full backs around!
slow game, think the international break is going to be welcome, thought clarke was quiet second half with their lad being on a yellow he should have tormented him, had a quick read and i agree we seem to be taking too many touches at times, roberts is not as good in the middle, he showed some nice touches but i feel he was 'missed out' a lot, ba played well but needs to move the ball quicker, i don't mind players trying different things but he does try to take too many on but he will learn. i really want at least one striker to open his account, several times a ball has been played into the middle but someone always gets his foot in to clear it, maybe taking to long around the box gives them more time to organise, rusyn might be the first if he gets some minutes, i know the first team is different but he was making some great runs the other night. thought the ref handled it well, spoke to players rather than just handing cards out, with the benefit of replays he got the main calls right...i quite like the way he let some 'clashes' go, especially their players throwing themselves down in our penalty area as soon as they got touched, the red card some give them others would show a yellow but you take a big chance leaping into a tackle like that. my MotM and i agree with danny, huggins, been improving since he got back in the side and would say this was his best performance yet.
Not at all. It just wasn't drawing them out, they were content sitting in shape and allowing us the kind of possession that couldn't damage them. We can't afford to spend 40 mins being as passive as that in home games. We are good enough to play quicker and off fewer touches to pull players out of position and create gaps and overloads, there was nowhere near enough of that for the majority of the first half and away sides coming to the SoL will be over the moon to see us do that. We had a similar spell first half against Cardiff too. I'm buzzing we've won the game and deservedly so in the end, I'd just like to see us start with a bit more intent at home.
I thought the lad on the yellow was subbed at half time to be replaced by the number 45? And the ref was terrible, he couldnt give us a free kick numerous times, yet blew straight away for anything for them
he was but clarke never really touched the ball after the lad was booked, i would have give him the ball every time...but then, i can be a cnut. as i said, with the benefit of replays i think the ref did well, a miserable rainy night and one team content to fall over if someone farts near him he refused to be conned.
I thought the ref was spot on, I don't think we were fouled once that wasn't recognised. We threw ourselves to the ground quite a bit which from a distance looks like a foul. When Watford lost it at the end he punished them every time.
I disagree with your disagreement. Seriously though it's a fine line. I thought the ref got pretty much everything right and wasn't attention seeking. If you were at the game you might feel differently after seeing the replay. Lots of the fouls on us looked bad initially but we were actually going down too easily.
With regards to the ref, he reminded me very much of Howard Webb, pondered things and got them wrong, also any ref who instructs linesmen to wait for his signal before giving anything is a tosser
I was at the match, but I know what I saw, he is a Howard Webb wanabee, and how he is in charge of refs defies logic
Their centre half wrestling and bear hugging with anyone in their half got nothing, I would love to hear him explain that
Righto well I had the benefit of replays and I had no problem whatsoever with him. Seems a bit odd to be fixated on bad refereeing when we won and he gave nothing against us but whatever.
We tend to draw more fouls than most in the league to be fair so I’m inclined to agree with you. We do have a few players who go down easily. The officials weren’t letting them get away with kicking us they flagged for 19 fouls there was only a few teams managed that many against us last season. I do think closer to the end there was a few reckless tackles that could’ve been season-enders given the conditions and it definitely looked like they just wanted to kick us because we’d taken the piss.
I said the same to my mate earlier. We are too used to playing without a striker. The forward thinking players play some great stuff at times between them, and it just so happens one is Burstow, but we could just as easily play Rusyn in the forward line, and he'd link up the same. We are now set up to score goals as a team, not have a 25 goal a season striker.
We had a couple of brief periods where we tried to win fouls and deservedly didn't get any, probably didn't look that way from the stands. For me the ref was solid and when they lost their rag at the end everything was punished appropriately.
I’m still trying to work out what the keeper was firstly claiming for, secondly rolling about in apparent agony at re Ba’s goal. Watching it back, it’s just embarrassing for him!! As good as the first goal was, I preferred the second, the grit and determination from Ba, not to mention the leap and bravery in scoring that.
Anyone reading this board tonight would think we'd lost They're a bunch of kids ffs, fourth in the table and being praised around the country.
We've played much better and lost. Always nervous watching us but we are managing games like seasoned pros. This young squad man. Love it.